The Child

In the short narrative The Child by Tiger, Thomas Wolfe portrays mans dark side through the unexpected lunacy of the apparently good-natured Dick Prosser and the actions taken by the town people. This narrative is set in an epoch when people believed race determined the moral character of a individual. Many viewed inkinesss as societal castaway and therefore the cause of most offenses. This is true to the extent that African Americans were perpetrating a big figure of junior-grade offenses, but were they truly the cause. Many factors play into finding a cause, and in this instance it is rather apparent that the societal conditions in which African Americans were forced to populate in contributed to there societal behaviour. However, can these force per unit areas push a adult male to mental lunacy and thrust him towards mass slaying? It is non merely to state that he is without mistake, but it is true to state that, the coldness of one adult male will diminish the heat of another. The narrative gives us a glance of Dick s life a short period before the flood tide. We are left to examine hints and utilize our imaginativeness and intuition to come to a personal decision of why Dick committed mass slaying.

The clip in which the narrative takes topographic point was a period of terrible racial favoritism particularly toward Blacks. The most prevailing attitude toward African Americans was that they were someway inferior to the Whites. This is apparent by the referral of Dick as the Shepperton s Negro adult male ( Wolfe 24 ) . Mr. Shepperton himself

Arellano 2

declared that Dick was the best adult male he d of all time had, the smartest darkie that he d of all time known. ( Wolfe 26 ) . Dick had served a long hitch in the United States Army. Here he learned fast ones and traits that made him utile as a retainer. It was his submissiveness towards white folks, which charmed everyone, peculiarly the childs. He called all of us Mister this formal reference pleased us vastly ( Wolfe 24 ) . Although the childs of the narrative admire Dick, they were raised as though they were superior to him. This signifier of upbringing is what keeps the societal parasite called racism alive.

The town was improbably barbarous to Dick, but could this inhuman treatment cause lunacy and finally slaying. On a tabular array in Dick s room there was ever merely one object: an old Bible about worn out by changeless usage ( Wolfe 25 ) . Through out the beginning of the narrative, Dick was depicted as a profoundly spiritual adult male, and therefore non capable of such a wickedness as slaying. It appears that Wolfe might hold tried to bode the hideous event by adverting the unusual slang of Biblical phrases Dick chanted. Oh, white

fokes, white fokes, de Armageddon twenty-four hours s a-comin, white fokes, an de dry castanetss in de valley ( Wolfe 27 ) . How can a adult male with such Biblical devotedness and cognition commit slaying? It could hold been that Dick misinterpreted the Bible and believed he was making God s will by seeking to free the universe of evilness. Why else would hold Wolfe mentioned the Biblical poetries that Dick had marked when he last read the Bible. The Lord is my shepherd 3. He leadeth me in the waies of righteousness for his name s interest. 4. Yea, though I walk through the vale of the shadow of decease, I will fear no immorality: for 1000s art

Arellano 3

with me These poetries provide encouragement to make God s will and to non fear the Great immorality that one is traveling to meet. If in fact he had read these minutes before his

violent disorder, it is supportive grounds that he believed he was making the will of God until the terminal.

Possibly, these were the last poetries he read before he went mad ; hence discrediting the cogency of the old theory. If this is so, there must be a cause for his sudden lunacy. Possibly, it was the consequence of an hurt or intellectual viral disease, or merely because of built up emphasis. In fact, Dick s life would hold been full of emphasis and built up choler. Lon Everrett swung brutally at the Negro, smashed him in the face. Dick did non travel. Butt all of a sudden the Whites of his eyes were shot with ruddy, his shed blooding lips bared for a minute over the white tusk of his dentitions. Lon smashed at him once more. The Negro took it full in the face once more ; his custodies twitched somewhat, but he did non travel. This is grounds of hurt to the caput and of the withholding of choler, both of which can individually ensue in psychological break. If Dick often encountered this signifier of intervention so it would hold doubtless caused him to snarl

Whatever the cause it does non pardon the manifestation of adult males deeply concealed immorality. For adult male has the ability to spot between good and evil, right and incorrect, merely and unfair, logical and unlogical, and hence he must acknowledge that his determinations besides affect the lives around him. The way of the righteous is like the first glow of morning, reflecting of all time brighter till the full visible radiation of twenty-four hours. But the manner of the wicked is like the deep darkness: they do non cognize what makes them stumble ( Proverbs 4:18 ) . If this Biblical –

Arellano 4

manifested itself, because the town boulder clay this twenty-four hours knows non what made it stumble. Work force debated and discussed these things a thousand times and all of it came to nil. No one knew the reply ( Wolfe 39 ) .